


A Gentler Touch

by Solar_Sylvilagus



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: And I'm really proud of it so now it's going here, But they feel feelings, Gen, I wrote this for the DS secret santa, Their empathy module may be broken, Usually good feelings are only directed towards organic life that can't talk back, Wholesome WX-78
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 05:36:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16886625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solar_Sylvilagus/pseuds/Solar_Sylvilagus
Summary: Subjugating fleshlings was one thing, plant-life was another. Fragile stems and delicate roots required a gentler touch. One that they’d usually disdain. But sometimes sacrifices must be made.





	A Gentler Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the Don't Starve Secret Santa on tumblr, and I just got an email back that the gift recipient was really happy with it! And since I was proud of it, and my proof-readers thought it was good, it was enough nudging to finally get me to post.

Looking out over the neat rows of berry bushes was something WX-78 could appreciate. Farming itself was something they could appreciate. Uprooting organic life and making it grow where it would benefit them the most, making it serve as it should. Subjugating fleshlings was one thing, plant-life was another. Fragile stems and delicate roots required a gentler touch. One that they’d usually disdain. But sometimes sacrifices must be made. Like gently tucking dirt and manure around the base of a sapling, a blanket for the winter chill. Or carefully plucking rot-ridden leaves from a berry bush and spending hours on their knees looking for more signs of decay. Or planting more appealing flowers near the farm to coax pollinating insects into tending blossoming pumpkin plants.

Were the idea not utterly ridiculous, WX-78 might think they were being tricked into servitude. No, this was merely a minor sacrifice of pride for the purpose of survival. But spending precious time delicately transferring a succulent from the oasis into a pot at their base? Illogical. Pointless. A plant with no function, yet they risked rust to transport water from the pond. And when they reached to try and rip it up, to turn it into fuel and justify its brief existence, their broken empathy module responded with errors painful enough to halt them.

And no number of furious glares directed at the insolent little aloe would cause it to combust. Perhaps it was for the best. A fire would have spread.

* * *

 

It was during an inspection of the berry bushes that they were reminded of the audacity of organic life, via signs of a trespasser. Fragments of eggshell that crunched easily between metal fingers and stray feathers. And, at the very middle of their carefully tended berry patch, a nest of twigs and grass. The unusually large birds were always attracted to berries and determined enough that even WX couldn’t always keep them out, but this was absurd. Especially when a ridiculously tiny ball of feather peered up at them, blinking shiny black eyes.

Righteous fury surged through the automaton and their grip on the shovel made metal joints protest. Fury that faded oddly as the small bird hopped onto their foot and settled there. Sensors detected warmth and weight and blunt little claws barely scraping their paint. The shovel was set down as they contemplated what to do past the annoying buzzing of their empathy module, thinking back to the errors said module had sent up regarding a certain and equally insolent organic specimen.

"...YOU MAY LIVE."


End file.
